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Spiced Lamb with Cauliflower Tabbouleh

Author Notes:Inspired by a Sunbasket recipe, this easy template for a quick dinner is so surprisingly delicious and interesting that it's earned a spot in our permanent list of house favorites, and shows up often on the weeknight cooking rotation. You can easily sub in other vegetables based on what's available and looks good. —Posie (Harwood) Brien

Serves: 2

Ingredients

For the lamb + tabbouleh

3
tablespoons olive oil, divided

2
cloves garlic, minced

1
1 head cauliflower, cored and chopped finely (it should be in rice-sized crumbles)

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add the chopped cauliflower and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to brown, about 8 minutes. (Note: If you want to make your prep easier, it's really easy to chop the cauliflower by tossing it in the food processor and pulsing a few times.)

Season with salt and pepper and add a drizzle of olive oil to the cooked cauliflower.

Transfer the cooked cauliflower to a large bowl. Don't wipe out the pan.

To the bowl of cauliflower, add the cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon zest, lemon juice, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Set aside.

In the same skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Add the ground lamb and spices (I alternate between baharat and hawaijj depending on my mood or what I have in the pantry. Both are delicious with lamb.). Season with salt and pepper, and cook over medium-high heat until the lamb browns, breaking it up with a spatula as it cooks.

To make the dressing: Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. It should be pourable; if it's too thick, add more warm water. It should be easy to drizzle but not super thin.

Divide the cauliflower mixture between two bowls, and divide the lamb on top of both bowls. Top with a liberal drizzle of the tahini dressing. Garnish with flaky sea salt and a handful of fresh cilantro.

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4 Reviews

Ran across this when looking for lamb recipes. I had grilled a butterflied leg of lamb and needed to use up the leftovers. So I diced up the lamb slices. I had hoped they would become really crispy and they didn't but were very good. The seasoning seemed a bit much but blended well into the entire dish. I also used frozen cauli rice, which didn't brown like fresh would have done, but that was what I had on hand. WHEN I make it again, which I certainly will, I will do that. Love the dressing. Fits well into a keto diet.

This is good. Really good. We eat/cook a LOT of middle eastern food so found the concept around this and the presentation, intriguing plus had all ingredients. A few reflections: 1) Delicious, and super easy to put together; 2) cauliflower makes for a slightly mushy tabbouli texture, but the flavor is great!; 3) suggest cooling the cauliflower doen after cooking but before adding the tomatoes/cukes/parsley/lemon....adding these raw items to stovetop-hot cauliflower isn't good.... easy to adjust prep order to allow for cooling; tahini sauce uses garlic powder which is great for superquick, but this sauce is a household staple (great on many things!) and I prefer using a microplaned clove of fresh garlic. Had baharat and it made for great tadty lamb. The cilantro garnish adds a wonderful note, so don't omit unless you just don't have it. All said, highly recommended. And I will make that cauliflower tabbouli just for the heck of it (oh, on the lazy: had a bag of already-riced cauliflower from TJs...fresh is better, but for the quick convenience, that was just fine.)